Using Testimonials
Incorporating client testimonials into your website can help build trust, and improve your conversion rates substantially.
Testimonials can be established on your website is different ways:
- Method 1 – Manual Page: You can create your own page with testimonials you edit.
- Method 2 – Manual Page with Page Comments: You can create a page that opens up Page Comments and allow people to add comments.
- Method 3 – Testimonials Widget: You can use the Testimonials plugin – your OM4 site includes a Testimonials plugin that makes it easy to collect, manage and display your testimonials.
Method 1 – Manual Page
Managing your own testimonials page is easiest – just create a page, add to your menu and where you want to format text as a quotation, use the Blockquote option from your page editor toolbar.
Method 2 – Manual Page with Page Comments
To use this option you need to go to Dashboard, Appearance, Site Design and activate the Page Comments option. This will open up a Comments section on all of your pages.
You can use the Discussion settings (use Dashboard, Pages, Edit and scroll to bottom to see this section) to turn comments on or off for particular pages. You can use Dashboard, Pages, Edit and the Bulk Edit button to turn off page comments for many pages at once.
Create a specific page you want to use for Testimonials, enter any introductory text (perhaps inviting people to leave a testimonial) and ensure the Discussion settings for the page allow page comments.
See an example of this approach at Denis Glennon Photography or Iconic Images International.
Using the Testimonials Plugin
To see how the Testimonials plugin works, have a look at the sidebar of the OM4 website. When the blog first loads, a testimonial is loaded in the top right of the page.
If you navigate to another page with the sidebar, a new testimonial is displayed.
This is a good article that talks about how to improve the value of testimonials: Make Customer Testimonials Meaningful.
5 ways to use the Testimonials plugin on your site
Here are five ways you can use testimonials:
- Testimonial Lodgement Page: you have a Create a Testimonial page for your clients to use to send you their testimonials .
- Manage Testimonials: you have a management page (Manage, Testimonials) that lets you review and enter your client testimonials into your own database. Enter each testimonial once, and everything is automatic from there
- Random Testimonial Display: displays a randomly selected testimonial in your sidebar. A new one is displayed each time a page is loaded. There is a link to display the page with all testimonials.
- Show All Testimonials: you have a web page to display all your Client Testimonials
- Landing Page with Testimonials: provides you with a new Landing Page Testimonials template that you can use when you create landing pages. Any page based on this template will display all your client testimonials in random order in a single sidebar, alongside your landing page text.
Setting up Testimonials
- Activate Plugin: Before you can use Testimonials, you need to activate the WP-Testimonials plugin on your Dashboard, Plugins page.
- Add Widget To Sidebar: add http://yoursite.com/create-testimonial/ to your menu or sidebar, or just send the address to your clients via email, to allow them to contribute testimonials
- Add Testimonials Page: add http://yoursite.com/testimonials/ to your menu or sidebar if you want clients to be able to show the a page with all testimonials
Here are further instructions about Activating & Displaying the Testimonial Plugin.
Create a Testimonial Landing Page
This is an example of a page showing the page text down the left, and automatically selected testimonials from the testimonials database being displayed to the right.
To create one of the pages, go to Manage, Pages and create a new page. In the page options to the right of your page content, select Landing Testimonial as the Page Template.
Acknowledgement
The WP-Testimonials plugin in use is an enhanced version of Jodi Diehl’s WP-Testimonial plugin.